Hollywood has long struggled to hash out its diversity issues or lack thereof, but director Jon M. Chu told Cheddar that those that have smashed through the hiring ceilings at movie studios are working to keep them open for others.
"[Hollywood] is a network of ideas and ideologies that come together in this place to make stuff, and so I don't think there's an easy answer to 'Hey, it's changed now in Hollywood,'" Chu said. "But I do think that people are in positions now to make sure that the gates are more open, and it's not just one gate. It's thousands of gates."
Chu directed the 2018 blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians, based on a book of the same name written by Kevin Kwan, which was notable in Hollywood for featuring a cast made up almost entirely of those of Asian descent.
Nowadays, the decision to direct a film for Chu lies in how entertaining he believes the movie can be. His filmography also includes projects like Step Up 2: The Streets and G.I. Joe: Retaliation, but for his upcoming project, In The Heights, an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's play, he explained the importance for him to be able to bring a story about first-generation immigrants to the big screen.
"I saw the Broadway show when I was making my first movie and I saw it in New York City and it moved me. I'm not from Washington Heights. I'm not from New York. I'm a California boy. I grew up in a Chinese restaurant with my family, basically," Chu said. "But the community of children of immigrants surrounded by their aunts and uncles who want the best for them, who work their butt off trying to take care of us, have hopes and dreams of themselves but also for us. And us trying to piece together our cultural identity crisis, and that each of us have different ways to deal with it. That really touched me."
With the success of films that touch on identity like Crazy Rich Asians, particularly at the box office, Chu said Hollywood also is feeling pressure from "activists and nonactivists" to continue releasing films that reflect society. He also pointed to the power of the dollar, showing studios the movie-goer support for the films they want to see.
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Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
